


bleed

by cicadas



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Lowercase, Memories, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-25 23:05:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16670083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cicadas/pseuds/cicadas
Summary: peter parker doesn't like blood.day to day it's easy to avoid, but in his dreams, he’s covered in it.





	bleed

peter parker doesn't like blood.

it’s simple enough. common enough.  
  


may doesn’t rent detailed crime movies. MJ keeps her sleeves tugged down when she sees him. ned ducks his fingers out of sight whenever he nicks it on the saw blade when they’re in shop (which happens more often than he’d admit). and peter knows to keep his eyes down and face straight when something graphic comes up on the news. last weekend there was a drive-by shooting by one of the new warehouses being constructed. may pointed it out to him, noting the ages of the men injured and thank god they’re okay, that one of them is in critical condition at queens general, and to be careful walking home.

the pixellated photo of a bullet wound to the sternum wasn’t much.

it was too much.

peter felt it in his chest as it tightened. he felt it clutch at his arms with aged fingers. he felt it in his hands as they tingled and ached and buzzed and his head felt dizzy and the news segment was over and an ad for subway was playing and he felt sick but he just couldn’t move.

because uncle ben’s hands are on his shoulder, slipping down to his forearm in a vice grip, keeping him there. the blood from his chest is leaking out onto the cold, hard sidewalk, heart still pumping and there’s red coming out of him and he doesn’t remember how to resuscitate someone when they’re bleeding like this-

it still affects him.

he’s frozen on the couch for ten minutes. his shoulders get sore with the tense unmoving of his body. may lets him be. makes him a hot chocolate and leaves it on the table for when he’s ready. she knows better than to try to talk to him, comfort him - one of the first times he’d lashed out, arm coming up to smack her in the face, her jaw stinging immediately, and the need for apology pulled peter out of his trance, but it didn’t fix him. she checked on him later that night and he was on his laptop, sitting up, looking up the article of that night. on google, typing ‘how to stop a bullet wound from-’.  
then he’d seen her, and closed the lid of his laptop with a soft  _click_ , and climbed into bed without looking at her. he lay down with his body facing away, and the door made the same sound when may closed it.

in his dreams, he’s covered in it. it’s seeped into his skin. blood that isn’t his own staining his school jumper and jeans and socks and sneakers and it’s on his hands, god, his hands are dripping from where he tried to push down, push it back in, but ben just groaned and his hand slipped down and those fingers locked around him like they were trying to stop him or maybe comfort him. peter remembers the ache in his muscles, how he thought for a second ‘will i bruise from this?’.

then they went slack. and the blood flow lessened. and then it stopped.

the pool around them was sickly dark crimson and peter’s hands were wet when he shoved his hair back out of his face and began to push against his uncle’s -  _his_  uncle, the only father figure he’s known that  _hasn’t abandoned him_ \- chest again, with more force. then there’s a grip on his arm, grabbing at him, at his jumper, at his bloodstained flesh, dragging him to his feet and away. the paramedics do what they can. which isn’t much. their main focus is crowd control, is peter, is asking him who he is and did he know that man and  _you did all he could._

 

peter parker doesn’t like blood.

he saw enough of it at age fourteen.

 

 


End file.
